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Long post, so please bear with me... My 10 month old baby Stella, a 50/50 fox/coon & walker coonhound rescue, has some separation anxiety issues I'm looking for advice with. Stella's story before us is a sad one... Mama dog (a purebred foxhound according to DNA) birthed her litter in a field and abandoned 'em @ 5 weeks. Pups were rescued by the property owner and sent up north to a hound rescue here in upstate NY. Stella is a shy submissive pup and a family adopted her at 8 weeks old. They were a full time working couple with a very young child and no dog experience. When they surrendered her back to the rescue at 7/8 months old, they admitted she'd been closed in a laundry room for 7-8 hours per day, though the rescue suspected longer due to her behavior. The family then became frustrated with her hyperactive behavior when they DID let her out in the house, do they fitted her with a shock collar, rather than trying exercise, training etc. They eventually labled her as aggressive when she would run from them and hide and cower in fear. She wasn't socialized, leash trained, crate trained etc. Previous family had a small fenced yard she was let out in at night and in the a.m. That was the extent of her exercise and activity. When the previous family returned her to the rescue, words like "demon dog" were thrown around. We adopted her 3 weeks later and she's been a DREAM. She gets TONS of hiking or climbing/ walking/ running daily w/ us daily. Goes to dog parks. Is potty trained, loving, sweet, learning leash manners and basic commands like a champ. We've seen ZERO aggression towards anything. She's even adapted to crate training at night and sleeps quietly all night. She's a great dog! The one thing we're having an issue with is separation anxiety. I'm a stay at home Mom, so I don't have to leave often luckily. But any time she can't see or hear me or the kids/my husband, there's a deafening symphony of barks, howls, scratching at walls/ doors, jumping around, chewing at knobs. She FREAKS. I know it prob has something to do with her former home, being alone so much, and being surrendered back to the rescue. But she's so smart and sweet- there must be a method to train her out of this, right? She's not even a year old yet! I want her to be the most well adjusted pup on the block and I have tons of time to work with her. Does anyone have any tried and true separation training tips?
